


The Stoneheart Protocol

by tuliptoes



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Willful abuse of flashbacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:21:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 18,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28463757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tuliptoes/pseuds/tuliptoes
Summary: Jaime Lannister and Brienne Tarth are bounty hunters, the best in the business, until Jaime goes on a mission to retrieve a quarry, and vanishes.Two months later, Brienne begins a desperate search for him as the Stoneheart Protocol is enacted.
Relationships: Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth
Comments: 74
Kudos: 84





	1. The Hub

**Author's Note:**

> Happy New Year!
> 
> My last story of the year. Good riddance right? The updates on this one will be a bit more infrequent, because it needs a lot of editing, but it has begun.
> 
> Come say hi, I'm albatrossisland on tumblr.

“Tell me Tollet, how are we doing it this time?”

Brienne Tarth smiled down at the young man in cuffs in front of her.

“I know when I’m beat Tarth, no fuss this time.”

She laughed as she closed the door to the airlock behind her. He was probably telling the truth this time, his shoulders were slumped as his hands were uncomfortably clamped behind his back. 

But he had lied before. At least twice he’d tried to kick her and run away, even if there was no place to run to.

She grabbed the cuffs as she marched him across the airlock to the Hub. One way or another, they always ended up right back here. He would serve his time, sometimes on a service colony, sometimes on a penal colony, and she would be there to collect him and take him home.

And he would promise that this time it would stick, he would stop thieving and smuggling, he would find a way to live within the law.

He did try, for weeks and months, Tollet could be good, but then something would happen, and she would have to chase him down again, and bring him back here.

He managed to last for 5 months this time, almost breaking his 8 month streak.

_ Maybe next time _

She waved to Addam Marbrand in the station as he opened the doors in front of them. It was good to see a friendly face, it had been lonely since …

She brushed the thought aside, it did no good to think of  _ him _ . He made his choice. She had to move on.

Addam smiled at her, smiled at Tollet too.

“What was it this time?”

Tollet’s face lit up. “This woman, oh she didn’t even know how much the little bauble was worth, and I borrowed it to find out for her, and can you believe it, she turned me in for thieving. Me!”

He smirked at Brienne, and she returned his smile. Service colony then, that was better, he can spend his time farming and planting gardens for colonists. Maybe it will even help him change.

Maybe. 

“How long they sending you up for?”

“Two months, two months for that little thing.”

Tollet laughed, and Brienne patted him on his shoulder.

“Come on Tollet, let’s get you signed in.”

Addam grabbed her hand, and squeezed. She looked at him and saw the concern on his face.

“Brie, I’ll get him processed. You need to go to your station.”

Her heart started pounding at his words, but she felt his hand holding hers again.

“Just go, I’ll meet you later.”

***

Brienne wanted to run to her office, wanted to knock down everyone in her path. But she couldn’t, she could barely get her feet to move, because whatever was waiting for her was going to be bad. 

It was going to be about Jaime, and there was no good news waiting for her about him.

It had been two months since he’d left, gone on a job, let his quarry escape and vanished with his ship. Two months of silence while she had cried herself to sleep, and cried while alone in space, waiting for any sign of him.

Someone slammed into her shoulder, and she barely felt it, but Hyle was clutching his shoulder as if she had dislocated it.

“Watch it ass -” he cut off the expletive as he looked at her, his face going red. 

“Sorry Brienne.” He raised his hand to reach out to her, but pulled back at the last minute. 

Her heart clenched at the sight, Hyle trying to offer her comfort.

_ No no no _

Propriety be damned, she started running. It wasn’t far, there weren’t many people about at 2500 hours, but she could feel all their eyes on her as her breathing picked up. Her hands were shaking as she held her palm up to the scanner on her office door.

The monitor on her desk was already blinking, red letters flashing ALERT ALERT, just waiting for her to run a finger over the display and activate the message.

_ I could sit here forever, let myself die of thirst, and I’d never have to see what’s on the other side. I could just die in blissful peace of whatever news this has to share. I could, I could, I could… _

She reached out to her screen, and with a trembling finger, she activated the touch sensor and the message came through.

_ *beep beep*  _

_ All agents hear this, Stoneheart Protocol has been activated for rogue agent 31409, AKA Jaime Lannister. _

_ *beep beep* _

The message flashed across her screen for another minute before the sound finally died. __

_ He’s not dead, he’s not dead, he’s not dead _

She repeated the words to herself, breathing in and out, trying to get her body to accept that he was still alive.

_ For now _

She couldn’t stop the tears at the thought; yes, he was still alive, but it was only a matter of time.

She heard a soft knock on her door, and she did what she could to stop her tears, but it would make no difference. Even without a mirror, she knew her face would be red and blotchy, whoever was on the other side of the door would know immediately.

She opened the door, and Addam stepped over the threshold and wrapped his arms around her. 

“I tried to stop them,” he whispered. “Please believe me, I tried.”

She did believe him. He was the senior hunter, even before Jaime vanished Addam had been their representative for new protocol meetings, and for punishments. He was good at it, always fair, always doing what he could for his people, even when they were in the wrong.

_ Like Jaime _

She hugged him tighter. Addam had known Jaime longer, they had grown up together, joined together, and now he had made sure that he was there to comfort her when she heard the news.

He let her go, pulling himself up straight to look her in the eye. He was shorter than her, most everyone was, but he could be imposing when called upon.

“You can’t look for him Brienne,” he said, his eyes downcast, looking away from her. “I can’t let you hunt him down and bring him in. Not you.”

She felt her lip quiver, but she nodded. She knew the protocol, she knew the rules, even if she abhorred this one.

“I have an assignment for you.” He pulled out his pad, and she saw her new target’s face flash on the monitor. “He’s elusive, he must have access to a ship, because he’s been spotted at every planet in the system.”

He cleared his throat, and briefly pointed to the ceiling. She had long suspected their offices were bugged, and she nodded at him.

“You are our finest hunter, and I have no doubt that you can track him down, even if it takes you across the system. Even if it takes you a year or more.”

He grabbed her shoulder and squeezed. “Bring him back, make him pay.”

She nodded again, sucking back her tears, pulling all her sorrow and grief into her body, and casting it aside in favor of her finding her new quarry.

Bronn Blackwater

AKA Jaime Lannister


	2. The Hub, Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Two: Brienne's search begins

Jaime had kissed her goodbye the morning he vanished, like he always did. She held him close, and she waved to him as he left their unit for his assignment.

He had told her while his quarry was classified top secret, his mark would be easy enough to find. They were young, had been spotted on a nearby planet Tyrosh, he would probably make it back in time for a late dinner, if he could get through the paperwork in time.

She hadn’t believed that last part, he hated paperwork like no man she had ever known, but she knew he would try to get back as soon as he could. She was on leave for another week, and with this assignment done, he would have a week free, they could hop on a public ship and have their own adventure that would not involve having to hunt down criminals.

Instead, there had been nothing.

She hadn’t waited up, she had gone to sleep. And in the morning, she was worried, but not overly so, even the simplest job can take more time than you think it would.

But then another day had gone by with nothing, and she’d called it in, and Addam was the one who told her he and his ship had vanished, that Jaime had disabled the tracker in his ship and fled.

She had tried to retrace his steps, tried to follow his quarry, but his case was considered need-to-know, and she wasn’t deemed necessary. Not even Addam was privy to what Jaime had been assigned. Brienne had even gone so far as to try to menace Baelish, their boss, and all that had gotten her was a dirty look and a suspension.

He was gone, he hadn’t come back, and she didn’t know why. She couldn’t know why. It ate at her if she thought about it too much, her brain loved to torment her with thoughts that he left her because she wasn't enough for him, so she tried not to think, she accepted any open jobs she could, she covered for any hunter who wanted time away, she did anything she could to keep thoughts of him out of her mind.

Sometimes it even worked.

She sat in her office after Addam left, trying to read the file he’d given her, trying to focus on what she would need for this assignment.

Blackwater was a real crook, she’d seen his bio and crime sheet many times, but he always found a way to slip out of his hunter’s net. His file didn’t really seem to indicate that he had that level of intelligence, but it was pretty outdated. And every hunter knows you should never underestimate someone who doesn’t want to be caught.

She sighed, throwing the pad into her bag. The file was useless anyway, she would need nothing new to catch him, just surprise, the only thing her fellow hunters had not yet been able to spring on him. 

He’d known every setup, he’d spotted every hunter immediately, he’d never been caught off guard which could only mean that he had an inside source tipping him off. 

And she was going to be the newest hunter in a long line of them that would be stumped by this master thief. 

Just the cover she needed.

She stood up, ignoring the way her muscles screamed as she moved them after being still for too long.

Her head whipped back to her monitor as another alert came through, her heart pounded in her ears until she saw that it was a replay of the earlier alert. 

She sat down again, as the buzzing from her comp unit sounded through her tiny office.

_He’s not dead, he’s not dead, he’s not dead_

But Jaime will be soon, if she couldn’t get to him first.

She stood up again, gathered her bag, and sent off her requisition list to the dock workers who would get her ship ready. She would need sleep, and the ship wouldn’t be ready for hours. 

She opened a panel on the wall, put her palm to the sensor, and closed her eyes. She heard the whirl of her office furniture disappearing behind her, felt the slight breeze as her bedroom materialized behind her. Some people could watch the process without getting sick, some people could see one room swish and flick into another without feeling anything, but she was not one of them.

She turned back, let her eyes focus on her wardrobe and the bed that was just a little too small for her. She peeled off her jumpsuit, not even putting it away before she crawled under the covers and turned out the lights, setting her door to emergency settings only.

_The Stoneheart Protocol_

She tried to sleep, but all she could do was wonder if he was still alive, if he was fighting with a hunter right now, a hunter who was given the authority, the mandate, to bring him in dead, a hunter who would not hesitate to kill him and bring back his head as a proof.

Jaime Lannister had been a first for the hunters in so many ways. He was the youngest planetary citizen to be admitted to the ranks (Addam was two years older, but he was the second youngest). He was the first to reach 50 captures before his first year on the squad, the first to reach 150 captures by his second year.

He was also the first, the only hunter, to kill a quarry.

She didn’t want to remember that, but her brain would never let her forget.

It was two years ago, she’d just joined the hunters with dreams of breaking his capture records, proving that her freakish size, her unfeminine muscles, her manly strength had some sort of purpose, that there was a reason for all the ways her body had betrayed her. 

It was the first rule of hunters, the one that stood above all others, the only one that was never to be broken: hunters capture their quarry alive, or not at all.

Collateral damage, or any loss of life, was unacceptable, and the easiest way to get kicked out and banned from the ranks.

She had been a hunter for a month when she had her first encounter with Agent 31409. He looked her up and down, mumbled something about if she was sure she was a woman before smirking at her and walking away.

She had dreamed about what she should have said to him, witty retort after retort, but she could only think of them when she was alone, trying to sleep, trying not to cry. This was her dream, she’d worked so long, hardened her skin at every cruel remark for years, so she could be here, and that’s the first hunter she met.

She hated him, and he knew it, and never ever let her forget why.

So when she’d heard what he had done, she was shocked, but not that shocked. He was arrogant, talented, used to getting everything he wanted, he would think the rules, even that rule, were beneath him.

She shuddered as she remembered thinking that she was only surprised it hadn’t happened sooner.

Addam escorted him, in clamps, through the corridor, and she’d seen his face, expecting to see defiance and arrogance, expecting him to laugh at her.

Instead he looked vacant, like the spark that lit him up had died out. She had to fight the urge to follow him, to demand an explanation for why he had done it, to demand he tell her why he had chosen to dishonor all of them like that.

It shocked her how much she needed him to explain why.

She squeezed her eyes shut, but she could not stop the memory of what happened next.

The hunters didn’t have a protocol for what to do; Addam, unflappable Addam, even he had no idea how to punish someone who had willfully defied their one rule. 

Brienne heard the same chatter too. Would it be enough to dismiss him? Should they kill him instead, send a message? But he was so good, was it fair to kill him for one mistake?

She wanted to scream at them that they were all asking the wrong questions, but even if she had, they wouldn’t have listened. But no one was going to listen to a recruit who hadn’t even finished a whole year of service yet. 

_She watched as Jaime woke up, he tried to rub his eyes, he’d been knocked out for days, but he raised his right arm to his face, and there was a bandaged stump where his hand used to be. He screamed, tried to get out of the bed he was chained too, tried to get away from his missing limb._

Brienne would never forget those screams. Against her better judgement, she was in his room as he woke up, because Catelyn had asked her to, Catelyn insisted that he needed to have someone in there who didn’t want to see him suffer, but he didn’t see her as he kept screaming, didn’t know it was her hands holding him down as the doctors ( _monsters)_ sedated him again. 

Catelyn had told her later that she had argued against his maiming, and when she’d been overruled, she’s argued against performing the operation without telling him, but again, she and Addam had been rebuffed, their concerns dismissed like they didn’t matter, like his suffering didn’t make a difference. Catelyn had talked her out of quitting, holding her when she started shaking at the injustice, and Brienne felt the familiar pain in her chest as she thought of what the woman she loved had turned into. 

Jaime had gotten a replacement of course. It was more or less the same, he told her later, but the color didn’t match his skin, so he couldn’t forget that it wasn’t him. And he was allowed to stay a hunter, if he chose, but he would be marked with his crime forever.

_She took off her shirt and he pulled her close to him, and she shivered as his bionic hand fell on her back. He blanched, and let her go, so afraid of her at that moment, as if she wasn’t the one terrified that he would only sneer at her meager breasts and mannish build._

_“It’s cold,” she whispered as she wrapped his arms around her. “That’s all.”_

_He smiled again, kissed her again, but the fear didn’t leave his eyes for a long time._

Brienne grabbed her pillow, threw it over her face and screamed into it for as long as she could. 

Admitting defeat, she got out of bed, pulled her clothes back on and walked down to the docks.

***

The docks were always busy. Even now, just after 0100 hours, the workers who supervised launches, the maintenance staff who kept the ships running were all busy and focused as they prepped ships (hers and two others), scrapped another ship for parts (RIP), and secured parts and people as they prepared for the launch in an hour’s time.

Pod, a young mechanic she was fond of, waved at her from near her ship. She waved back as she sipped her stim. It was awful, but it was hot, and it would keep her awake for a full day without needing sleep, which is exactly what she needed at the moment. 

“We’re almost ready to launch Brie,” he said with a boyish grin. He wasn’t a boy anymore, hadn’t been for a while now, but she couldn’t ever forget the kid who had grabbed her hand and begged her to take him with her.

“Jeyne is tracking down the last items you requested, but your engine is good to go. Shouldn’t have to fuel up until you hit Winterfell.”

She resisted the urge to tossle his hair, instead just smiling at him. She nodded again, and off he went, heading to another ship due out today.

She didn’t hear him approach, but she wasn’t surprised to see Addam standing next to her.

“Bring him back,” he whispered. “It’s the only way.”

She nodded. 

Addam cleared his throat as more people started milling about the stim station. “Blackwater won’t want to be caught, so you’ll need all your wits. Don’t let him get away. Tell him it’s time to stop running.”

He offered her his hand, and she took it. He tried to smile, but it came out a grimace.

“I’ll need one stop first.”

He nodded. “I saw your itinerary. It’s good, wrap up anything you need to.”

“Ready for launch Brie.”

Brienne threw her stim cup in the waste bin, gave Addam a last look before climbing in her ship. She gave Pod a thumbs up, and she felt the pull against her suit as the force threw her backward, launching her into the stars.

It never got old, even as she was on a mission she dreaded, even when she was itching to go home, it was always her favorite part, that breathless feeling of telling gravity to fuck itself as she flew and flew and flew.


	3. Winterfell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brienne visits an old friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've added chapter titles! Yes, it's a little thing, and I've only done it with one other story, but it seems to fit with this one. And I've added a tentative chapter count. It may go up or down, but it will around that.
> 
> And a big thank you for all the comments and kudos you've left; they mean so much to me. :D

Winterfell was an ice planet.

It was technically habitable, and the people who lived there were eternally smug about how they had managed to survive on a world where the early settlers should have gotten back on their ship and found another rock to rest.

But they hadn’t. The Starks, the Boltons, the Karstarks, and the Mormonts had decided as a group to stay here, because here was a world that no one else could possibly want, and they had the will to tough it out here.

They had stayed, and they had more or less thrived. It seemed to Brienne that this was a planet for old men and women who were done travelling, who only wanted a warm fire and a good reader padd in their laps and nothing else.

The children who grew up here largely agreed as they generally headed out to the stars, only coming back for funerals and their own retirements.

Or not coming back at all.

Brienne shivered as she knocked on the Stark home, not just from the gentle snow falling. She didn’t like to think about the children when she came here, even if that was all she could think about, the children who should be here, but who would never come back.

Robb had been the oldest, the one friend Brienne had had during her training years. He was younger than her, and he must have seen something in her he liked, because he made a point of sitting with the awkward ugly girl that nobody wanted to be around. 

He would sit with her when he could have easily sat at any other table, and he told her about his family, his sisters who loved each other fiercely, even if they would fight like rabid dogs. He told her about his youngest brother who was little more than a wolf cub, and his other brother who had already skipped two grades at his academy, and would probably skip more the way he absorbed knowledge.

He made her laugh with stories of his home, the fun they would have when it snowed, and eventually she found herself telling him stories of her island home. Storm's End was a tiny planet, but it was warm and beautiful, and so small that everyone knew everyone else, and she loved it, but felt suffocated, so she left for the training school the first chance she got.

And they were friends, best friends for three years they were in training together. She went to Winterfell, and the Starks were loud and warm, and she loved them all so much it felt like what a family was supposed to be. Growing up without a mother, she’d never known life could be different than a distant father and a cruel nanny, but she had had her suspicions, and Robb was kind enough to show her the proof. 

She felt the tears pricking her eyes as she knocked on the door again. 

A nurse she didn’t recognize opened the door, smiling at her and letting her in. Catelyn sat in her living room, looking out at the gathering snow, staring at the outside world and seeing none of it.

Her once vibrant hair had gone grey, nearly overnight it felt like to Brienne. Her once sparkling blue eyes had turned dull.

She had weathered her husband’s death; Brienne had held Robb the night he found out, clung to him with her own silent tears as he sobbed in her lap, but Catelyn had been strong, the tree that wouldn’t break. Brienne was sure it was just a mask, but she hadn’t seen it falter.

And then Robb had finished training, top of his class, splitting the honor with Brienne, and he’d chosen to join the Corps, and he’d been on the front line of a skirmish with Essosi forces, and he had died in his first battle. His fellow soldiers had left him behind, choosing to run rather than try to save him, not even sure if he could have been saved, but they collected his body after the fighting had died down. 

Brienne chose to believe that her friend had died right away, because the alternative was just too much to bear.

It had been hard on Catelyn, and Brienne tried to stop by as much as she could, and if she clung to her more and more, then so be it.

But Rickon, little wild wolf boy, had decided to go skating by himself when his siblings hadn’t wanted to go with him (Robb had always been the one to go with him). He was so little, and he couldn’t swim, he was lost before anyone even thought to look for him. It had taken two days to find his body in the water.

That’s what broke her, Brienne thought. She could survive losing her husband to a bad heart, and she could survive losing her son to a fight he volunteered for. It was hard, but Ned had chosen to ignore his doctor’s warnings, and Robb had chosen to fight. 

But Rickon...he had wanted to play with his favorite brother, and it wasn’t his fault that he didn’t understand that Robb couldn’t play anymore.

That’s when the life started to fade from her body. 

Brienne sat next to her friend's mother, her substitute mother if she was being honest, and held her hand as the woman stared out the window, looking at nothing, encased in her endless grief.

“Catelyn, can you hear me?”

Brienne whispered the words, hoping that this time she could reach her, could pull the woman she loved back from whatever abyss she’d jumped into.

It was hopeless, Brienne knew that, but she couldn’t quite convince herself to give up. She visited when she could, four or five times a year, hoping every time to see her face filled with life again. 

But she had died with her children.

After Rickon’s death, their home felt like a tomb, even Brienne stopped coming by as much as she had, it brought back too many painful memories of watching her father’s grief.

She cursed herself for that daily, but how could she have known? Bran was the smart one, he should have known not to go wandering in the woods at night. He was always reading, that’s what Robb had told her, he should have known.

And after four days of not finding him, his big sister Arya took off after him, no doubt suffering the same fate he did. Brienne tried to recall their faces, she hadn’t been as close to them as Robb, but she remembered them smiling, Arya especially always looked like she was ready for some mischief. 

Catelyn had crawled into her bed, and never crawled out. Sansa, her only child left, tried to care for her, but she was just a child, a twelve year old girl who had lost everyone too, and it was too much. So she was placed with a family friend, and her mother was placed under the protection of a series of nurses who could care for a woman who could not care for herself.

And then Sansa had run away, and that was the end. Catelyn was still alive, technically, her heart was beating, but her mind was lost.

It was almost as if Catelyn Stark had placed a piece of her heart into each of her children, and as they left her, died or disappeared or ran away, she left and died and ran away from her body until all that was left was a husk of the woman she used to be.

Brienne shuddered at the memories as she clung to the woman’s hand. She squeezed, but Catelyn wouldn’t squeeze back.

“I have to go away for awhile,” she whispered. “I’ll be gone for a long time.”

She didn’t need to tell Catelyn this, but she needed to tell someone, and who better to tell than someone who wouldn’t speak.

“Jaime is being hunted out there, and I have to find him, bring him back, I can’t let him die.”

Catelyn turned to look at her, almost like she had heard her words. She pulled her hand out of Brienne’s grasp, and looked at her, for the first time in months, the woman’s eyes focused on hers, her pale blue eyes alive with fury.

In a second, Catelyn’s hand was on her arm, squeezing the skin so much it hurt, and Brienne gasped, her mind whirling at this broken woman coming alive again.

“Kill him,” the words were harsh and low, her voice cracking as her long neglected throat contracted.

“Kill him,” she screeched the words, her voice rising higher, but her words echoing in the empty room.

Brienne stood up, trying to get away from this monster that had replaced the woman she loved. 

She backed out the room, her heart racing, but Catelyn was screaming the words at her now, “Kill him, kill him, kill him.” 

She ran outside, letting the cold air invade her lungs, trying to calm her heart, but all she could see was her face, alive again, seeking the one thing that Brienne would not give her. She did not stop shaking until her ship was in space, a world away from the mad look in Catelyn’s eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Catelyn. :(


	4. Lannisport

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brienne asks Tyrion for help

Lannisport was not a tiny planet in mass, but there were barely any people on the world nowadays. It was an exclusive world, which means you had to have been born there, be a descendant of someone who was born there, or be an honored guest of a resident to even be allowed to step onto the dock.

They were traders mostly, because they had the uranium every ship needed for fuel, so they could afford to accept who they wanted.

Brienne hoped that her guest status was still active. She had assumed that Jaime had stopped here at some point during his absence, and he could have revoked it.

She hated that she had doubts about him, but what else could she have? He had left her, left everyone without a word, what else could she think?

She pulled into the dock port, easing her ship into the outstretched clamp, feeling that familiar pull as the clamp held her ship in place.

She stood and stretched, her fingertips just missing the ceiling, forever grateful that while each ship had a standard mold, they were customized for each hunter. They spent so much time in these metal boxes, they needed to be habitable, and for her, well, that meant a lot of space. There was no place on the ship where she would accidentally hit her head on a beam, which she was grateful for everyday.

It also meant that it was a lot colder than a standard model, but what about her had ever been standard?

She headed to the lower compartment, easing her way down the stairs, looking around for a protein pack or fruit bar, anything to pass the time, when she heard the beep come through her ship’s intercom.

“Honored guest Brienne Tarth, you are most welcome at Lannisport. You have been granted full privileges of our luxurious planet. Your presence had also been requested for the evening meal with our esteemed primarch Tyrion Lannister.”

She chuckled as she imagined Tyrion writing out that message for some underling to say to her. He loved flowery language almost as much as he loved hearing himself talk. 

Hopefully she could talk him into helping her.

She climbed back upstairs, grabbing a fruit stick first. She nibbled as she ceded control of the ship’s navigation, letting the dock pilot guide her into port.

***

She had almost expected Tyrion himself to greet her. A very small part of her was hoping that Jaime would greet her, and she could scream at him and hug him a second later. She could leave him here and he would be safe, not even a hunter could come onto an exclusive planet without an invitation or birthright. 

But of course, neither happened.

Tyrion’s assistant, Peckeldon, met her as she disembarked. He waved and smiled at her, and she smiled back, the young man had told her once this was his favorite part of his job, getting to meet new people and helping them settle into their rooms.

“Good evening Miss Tarth,” he said as he reached for her satchel. “Mr. Lannister told me that you could stay in the main house for as long as you wish.”

The last time she had been here, Jaime’s father had still been alive, and Jaime had refused to stay in the same house with that hateful man. It caused such a rift that they were here for less than two hours before they hopped back into his ship, sending his apologies to his brother on his birthday. 

The next day, Tyrion had joined them for a weeklong trip to Mereen, where he gambled his way through a small chunk of his father’s money. Brienne had liked him; he was funny, he had a way of commanding attention, he was always the life of whatever room he was in.

And he loved Jaime as much as she did.

She hoped again that would be enough to convince him to help her.

It was a short drive to the Lannister mansion, and Brienne marveled at how such a little planet had the money to throw around. Everyone here had money, there were no slums, no peasants, no life at all, just skyscrapers and hotels, fancy restaurants as far as the eye could see.

She hated it. 

It was all fake, just like the people, just like this whole idea of keeping out the undesirables to protect the residents from them. The workers who lived here were better off than workers on any other planet, it was true, but they weren't even permitted to own property. And if they lost their jobs, they were given one hour to pack up their lives and find a new world to live on.

Jaime had only brought her here so she could meet Tyrion, and she hadn’t understood until then how one could hate their home planet, but she did after that trip.

Peck pulled up to the Lannister mansion, she had forgotten the name Jaime had told her, but what did it matter, no one could forget the house itself.

It was monstrous, built on a cliff overlooking the sea. It was big and cold, and Brienne shuddered as she remembered Jaime’s stories about getting lost as a child, unable to find his way back for hours at a time. He and Tyrion had tried to make a map for themselves, but it was too big a project for little boys, who soon got bored and went to play outside, their map forgotten.

“Follow me Miss Tarth.”

He led her to a guest room that was bigger than her ship. The bed was massive, and there was a private shower that was bigger than her office in the Hub. 

_ The Lannisters don’t do anything halfway. _

“Once you’ve settled in, Mr. Lannister has requested that you have dinner with him in the dining hall.”

She nodded as Peck retreated out of her room. That was another thing she liked about Tyrion; he believed in getting to the point.

***

Tyrion was rambling.

She was trying to follow his words, but he was talking about some mining dispute, going on and on about a deal he was trying to negotiate, or some dispute he had settled, and Brienne couldn’t care about his monologue at all.

He was rambling, and he wouldn’t look at her, which was all she needed to know. He would talk at her for hours and hours, but he didn’t want to talk  _ to _ her, because he couldn’t bear it. 

“See, the workers had asked for longer break periods, and the management team had agreed, but were trying to say the workers hadn’t been at the company long enough for it to apply - “

She stood up, her chair scraping on the floor. She winced at the sound, and it was enough for Tyrion to lose his train of speech.

She walked across the room, and sat next to him, looking into his mismatched eyes, one that was just like Jaime’s, the other all his own.

“Where’s Jaime?”

He sucked in a breath and turned his eyes away from her. 

“I don’t know,” he whispered. “I don’t know.”

She wasn’t the best at reading people, even after three years as a hunter, but she was fairly certain he wasn’t lying to her. 

She hoped he wasn’t, for both their sakes.

“I have to find him,” she said, her words so flat as she tried to hold back all the emotions she was feeling. 

He still looked away from her.

“I can’t help you,” he said as he looked at his hands, his feet, anywhere but at her.

_ You mean you won’t help me _

She took a breath, trying to keep her anger in, she wasn’t mad at him, not really, not anymore.

“Did he ever tell you about the Stoneheart Protocol?”

He paled as he finally looked up at her, his eyes frozen on her face.

“It’s been authorized for him, another first.” She couldn’t keep the bitterness out of her voice. 

“If I can find him before anyone else, I can convince him to turn himself in. He doesn’t have to die, Tyrion.”

Tyrion laughed, a mirthless, empty chuckle that hurt to hear. “They’ll just kill him when he gets there, chop off his head this time instead of just his hand.”

“Maybe,” she said. “But maybe not.” She had to believe that, she had to believe that the people she worked for wouldn’t be that cruel. 

She had to.

“You don’t want to kill him? Even after …” his voice cut off, even he couldn’t say the words that haunted her.

She reached for his hand, and she squeezed it. “No. Regardless of anything else, I just want him to be safe.”

He took his hand from her, ran it over his beard, a gesture she’d seen Jaime do a thousand times before. At the moment, they could have been twins, she thought to herself.

“I can’t tell you where he is, but I know where he was.” He grabbed the padd on the table and handed it to her.

“After he vanished, he sent me a message through an old channel, asking if I could find him some flight logs of two ships. I don’t know if he found them, or what he was going to do, but that’s the last I’ve heard from him.”

He looked at her, his eyes cold but not unkind. 

She looked away as the horrible memory crashed over her. She had been drinking, and she’d messaged him in tears, asking if he knew anything about where he had gone or why. He’d said nothing, just kept repeating that he hadn’t heard anything, and then he asked her to sign off and get some sleep.

_ You lied to me. _

He must have seen the hurt in her eyes, but he didn’t turn from it. His glance softened, but he would never apologize, she knew that already. He was protecting his brother, just like she was prepared to do. She didn’t like being lied to, but she understood; Jaime had told her to never trust a Lannister that wasn’t him.

_ You had it wrong my love; I shouldn’t trust them at all. _

She stood up, nodded at him.

“I’ll leave in the morning. You should revoke my guest privileges, in case I have to come back.”

He nodded. “I’ve sent his info to your ship, it will be waiting for you.”

She held her hand out, and he grabbed it and squeezed.

She turned her back on him and walked out. She thought she heard him wishing her well, but it could have easily been her imagination.


	5. The Betha

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brienne chases a lead into Jaime's whereabouts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise update!
> 
> Yesterday's update was both short and a bit light on the action, so here's another update. Happy Friday!

_ “Can you feel that?” she asked him as his right hand cradled her breast. He ran his thumb over her nipple as she gasped as the sharp chill of his hand hit her flaming skin. _

_ She asked him that over and over as his hands roamed her body, one organic and one synthetic, and she smiled as he told her again and again that he could feel her with both. _

_ “Yes,” he said, his voice low and dark, his smile hungry for her. “It’s not the same as in my left, it’s a little duller, but I can feel your heat, but I don’t need hands for that.” _

_ He smirked at her as his hands wandered lower.  _

She turned on her side, squeezing her eyes shut as she tried to block the memory. 

He had called it an experiment. He had had his new hand for months, almost a year, gotten used to the feel of it, could shoot, fly, write with it, but he told her, as they sat in the lower deck of her ship, on his bed, that it didn’t feel right. That he needed to see what another person thought of it.

She blushed at her own naivete. He had assured her that he only wanted to touch her skin, her stomach, the least sexy part on any person, just to see what the hand felt like to another person.

She had unzipped her jumpsuit, lifted up her tanktop, and she saw him gulp at the sight of her bare skin, but she thought nothing of it. 

He had touched her, and she flinched at his touch, and she could not ignore the hurt, panicked look in his eye.

“Your hand is cold,” she said, her voice low and soothing as she grabbed his hands, placed them on her stomach, hoping he could not feel the butterflies floating in there.

He clenched his hands, and she gasped, she was ticklish, how had she forgotten, and he grinned at her and did not stop until she was crying with laughter.

And then he kissed her, and there could be no mistaking his desire then. 

She blushed again as the memory of that night, their first night, cascaded over her.

No matter what happened to him, or to them, she would have that forever. It was a cold thought, not unlike his cold hand, but it was better than nothing. 

_ Losing him was better than never knowing him at all. _

But as she wasn’t getting to sleep, she pulled herself out of bed, stretched her too tired limbs and pulled up the padd again.

She could not make sense of it.

Tyrion had sent her exactly what he’d given to Jaime, the flight logs of two ships, The Betha and The Wind, and other than Jaime’s desire to find out info on them, she couldn’t see any connection between the two.

They were trading ships, they had their routes, they occasionally deviated, but even their deviations were their own pattern (Brienne suspected they were illegal dumping stops), and yes, they would occasionally be on planets at the same time, but not enough to form a pattern.

She screamed out loud, her voice echoing off the empty room as she threw the padd on her bed. It had been two days since she saw Tyrion, two days for her to stew at the man who could have told her this weeks ago, who could have given her a head start of finding Jaime.

The more she thought about them, the more she wanted to throttle him, but he was safe on Lannisport, far away from her and her rage, protected by his guest protocol.

Her padd pinged, and she picked it up, shock coursing through her. She’d set up the alert as a lark, she was too far away from their routes for them to be near her, but luck was on her side tonight.

The Betha was nearby, close enough for her to signal, close enough for her to visit. 

She couldn’t ask Jaime what he was looking for, she didn’t have a way into his brain to see what leaps he was making.

But maybe this would be enough. Maybe she could find it.

***

“Hunter Tarth, welcome to The Betha.”

Captain Seaworth held out his arm for her, and she crossed her own with his, an old tradition for first time visitors, but one she loved. It was supposed to clear the air of evil spirits that liked to hitch rides with travelers, and she doubted it had ever worked, but it was a comforting practice.

“Are you hunting for someone on my ship?”

She shook her head, and his sigh of relief did not escape her notice. Most captains would cooperate with hunter’s requests, even if they didn’t want to let their crew or their passengers be arrested. But it was for the best, it was always for the best, Brienne reminded herself.

And if he was a little afraid of her, or what she would do, that was for the best too.

“May I have your ship manifest for the last five years?”

He paled at her question, but he nodded. Technically, he could have refused, he had the right, but here was a man who didn’t want trouble, who would cooperate to avoid that at all cost.

_ Good _

She didn’t want trouble anymore than he did. She just wanted answers.

_ Jaime smiled at her, as the sun rose behind him, his face in shadow but his smile burning into her memory. He reached out for her face, tucked a stray hair behind her ear as she blushed -  _

She shook her head at the memory, yes, she wanted him too, but that didn’t change anything that was happening right now.

Instead, she looked down at the grate below her feet, looked through the cracks in the walkway to hear a small piece of the engine whistling quietly.

"Is your ship from the Black series?"

Seaworth's eyebrows shot up at her question, but he nodded to her. 

"You know your ships Tarth."

The Black series was an old line of ships, hard to find nowadays, but her father had told her that no ships were ever built as sturdy, no ships were ever capable of doing so much with so little. 

He'd had one, The Galladon, that had been 40 years old by the time he bought it, and it still outlived him. 

Her ship, a Grey, she loved it in her bones, but it would never be as good.

Brienne had sold her father's ship, regretfully and with a broken heart, to pay for her passage to school. She'd learned to fly on that ship, learned to love flying from her father, and the memories ambushed her to such a degree that she had to reach out to the wall for support.

Captain Seaworth held out his arm to steady her, and she took it, smiled at him as the wary look in his eyes vanished.

"I grew up on one of those," she said, collecting herself as she let the memories fade. "Magnificent beasts."

She petted the walls of his ship, letting Betha know she meant no harm, and he smiled at her.

"It will take a bit for the info to get to your ship. Would you like a tour?"

She nodded, allowing herself a moment of joy amid all that grief.

***

Captain Seaworth had a kind face, and he loved his ship and the people on it, and she still could not figure out what Jaime wanted from him. 

She'd seen the small compartments around the ship that he had gently led her away from, and she was certain he was a smuggler, but that wasn't her business. She had no business with him, and he had to have known that, but he'd been kind to her.

She pressed her hand to the ident padd for her ship, and she felt the whoosh of the airlock doors as her ship welcomed her home.

She felt the doors snap shut behind her, and she took a step forward, but she felt a tingling in her spine, and she looked back. 

_ "I shouldn't tell you this, but yes, I have a favorite." Robb takes another drink, his eyes are already glassy, his cheeks red, but they have just finished their very last exams. Starting tomorrow, the world is theirs, school can not hold them back anymore. _

_ "My little brother Bran, he's so different from me, but he looks up to me, and I want to tell him to stop, to just be himself, but he would never listen. I fear he's gonna follow me here instead of doing what his heart wants." _

_ Another drink, and his voice starts to slur as he stands up. _

_ "We have this ritual when I leave, he'll follow me to the door and place his hand on the window, and I look back and I hold my arms up, like I'll catch him if he runs to me. He never does, but I would." _

_ He sets the bottle down, falls over on her couch and she knows that he is a minute away from passing out. _

_ "I'd never let him fall." _

Brienne stared at the hand in the window across the rapidly shrinking airlock. The hand disappeared, and a boy's face, a face she never thought she would see again, looked at her with sad but curious brown eyes.

Without thinking, letting the shock take over her body, she held her arms out for him, to catch him just like his brother would.

He smiled at her as his ship separated from hers and vanished amid the stars.

_ Bran Stark _

_ You're alive _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Black Betha is Davos' ship in the books, and once I read that I decided to group the ship types by color as a way to classify the ship builders (not unlike firefly class of ships in "Firefly"). 
> 
> When I found out there was a ship called the Black Wind? An amusing coincidence, but a welcome one.


	6. Highgarden, Part One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a startling revelation, Brienne demands answers.

Bran Stark died on Winterfell.

Bran Stark is alive on The Betha.

His body was never found, like his sister’s body was never found, they were lost in the deep snow of the unending forests of Winterfell.

But he’s alive on The Betha.

In a daze, she drove her ship into orbit around a dead moon, set the autopilot to keep it running. It’s the smart choice, ship bandits still exist. Her ship is so small it will probably not come up on radar, but still, it’s harder to capture a moving target.

Even in shock, she knew what to do. 

Once she set and locked the controls, she went downstairs, grabbed the padd with the flight routes, the info that Jaime had asked for, looked back a little more than a year ago, and yes, it was right there.

The Betha stopped at Winterfell for one night, the same night Bran Stark disappeared. Bran had left his home, heading into the woods, the security cameras had seen him walking purposely into the trees that night.

But somehow, he had ended up on a ship that was 500 miles away in the opposite direction.

She looked at the flight logs for The Wind, but she knew already that she didn’t need to. It was the same story; four days after Bran’s disappearance, The Wind stopped at Winterfell to refuel and then left, presumably taking Arya Stark wherever she was going.

_ And Jaime found them _

Had he?

Did he have a hunch? Or a tip? She had wanted to ask Captain Seaworth if he had spoken to Jaime, but he couldn’t answer her; if he lied to her, he could find himself in her crosshairs, and she didn’t want to force the issue, the man was nervous enough. He had a nice smile and kind eyes, she couldn’t do that to him.

But she had to know.

She pulled up her padd, Tyrion was connected, almost like he’d been waiting for her message.

B: I need you to arrange a meeting.

T: With?

B: …

T: Ah. No.

B: Please

T: … 

T: I can’t betray him.

B: Yes you can. To save him.

T: ...

T: You have to promise me, swear to me, that you will bring him in alive. 

B: I swear.

T: Again.

B: I swear, I swear, I swear I will not let him die.

T: I pray he’ll forgive me. I’ll send the coordinates when it’s set up.

  
  


She watched as the words were deleted from her padd, their conversation scrubbed from the record. She was certain he kept it, just in case, he was that kind of man, but she didn’t blame him. She meant every word.

***

Highgarden was known as an unfriendly paradise.

The gardens were immense, the farms were even bigger, more than a third of the food produced in the alliance came from here, and so they were allowed certain freedoms.

Like being unwelcoming. Tourists were allowed, but they were not encouraged. You could come for a visit, but most of the planet was off limits to outsiders, something the locals were more than willing to enforce.

And hunters, well...unless you qualified as an exclusive planet, you could not ban hunters from docking. 

But, they *could* (and did, Brienne noted) wrap the hunters in red tape and bureaucracy until they left.

Jaime was smart to pick this place for his meeting. The locals would not tolerate outside influence or violence, and with the planet-wide ban in all types of surveillance, it was the perfect place for an inconspicuous meeting.

Or so he thought.

She was early, like always. She had told him once that she hated being late, that it was like a compulsion, and he had kissed her, right in the middle of The Hub, because he didn’t understand that impulse, but he loved her for it.

_ Loved. He loved me once. _

She heard the footsteps behind her, and she tensed, she couldn’t stop it, and she heard his sigh as he saw her.

“Fuck,” he whispered as he stopped in the street, not even sitting down.

She cursed him but only in her head as she stood up and faced him. 

He looked tired, worn out around the edges, even if he was still the most handsome man she’d ever known. She smiled at him, shyly, but he didn’t return her meager gesture.

He looked almost relieved to see her, just for a second, before he remembered who she was, what she did. 

“Jaime.”

“You shouldn’t be here.”

Those were his first words to her in two months, and she clenched her fists, her vision went red, and she couldn’t speak, she was so furious at him. He left her, and he had the gall to be pissed at her.

“I have to bring you in Jaime, before someone else does.” She said the words slowly, trying to keep her voice level, trying to make him hear her.

He flinched, and squared his shoulders at her, and shook his head.

“I can’t let you.” He turned his back on her, even now, so trusting, too trusting. He started to walk away from her, but she wasn’t letting him do that again.

_ Never again _

She grabbed his arm, forcing him back, forcing him to look at her.

“Stoneheart Protocol Jaime,” she whispered, and she saw the words hit him, the way he stopped fighting her grip on his wrist, how he sucked in a breath, how his eyes lowered to the phaser on her hip.

“If I bring you in,” she couldn’t finish the sentence. They’d taken his hand for breaking one rule, what else would they do for going off the grid, for letting his quarry go?

“You’re supposed to kill me on sight,” he snarled at her. “You have a duty Tarth.” 

He looked her in the eye, his own anger clear in his violent green eyes. She had called them that the first morning they had woken up together, and they never changed, they stayed a dangerous green, a green you could drown in, as she had.

“I won’t,” she whispered, not hiding the crack in her voice as she looked away from him. “It’s a choice that I won’t make. But you need to come with me.”

He reached for her, his hand brushing her cheek. For that second, she could pretend they were still in love, and she could sink into his touch, just like she always would before.

_ Before _

“If you want to stop me, you’ll have to.”

He heard the click first, she thought in the seconds it happened. He heard the click of a hunter removing the safety on their weapon, and he turned toward it, the phaser at his hip already to go, firing before the hunter had a chance to kill him.

That’s what he should have done, she told herself, he should have protected himself first, but that was never his style. 

Instead, he dived into her, pinning her to the ground as the shot blasted a hole in his hip. His face was stretched tight, but he didn’t let that stop him, smothering his scream as he turned and fired on their fellow hunter.

He gasped as he turned back to her, looked down at her, trying his hardest to stay with her.

“You have to get to my ship, there’s something…” 

His voice cut out as his eyes rolled into his head and her heart stopped in her chest.

The world cut out at that moment, the world shut down to just him and her, and the shallow sounds of his breathing.

_ He’s breathing, he’s breathing, he’s still alive _

She had to get him to his ship. 

_ I promised, I promised, I swore that you would be safe, that I would keep you safe. _

She sent a silent prayer upwards for her strength at this moment as she gently pushed him off her. He wasn’t bleeding, that was the good news, but his internal injuries could be anything, and she couldn’t help him with that unless she got him to his ship.

She briefly looked at the hunter who had fired at them, Trant said his jumpsuit, she knew his name, but she’d never seen him before today.

Trant’s eyes were open as he stayed still, the blast shot on his chest clearly what killed him. He must have followed her, she thought as she knelt next to Jaime. 

She put Trant out of her mind as she felt Jaime's wrist and sent out another prayer to any god available that he hadn’t changed in the months he’d been away, he still kept his ship tracker on his left wrist, the most obvious spot, but the easiest to protect. Before her first mission, he had smirked and rolled his eyes at her as she carefully tucked hers away in the inner pocket of her jumpsuit.

_ “What good is it going to do you in there?” _

She would gladly tell him he was right, even if she hated doing that because he could never be gracious in his victories, but she would have done it, because right now his tracker was telling her his ship was in dock two sectors away, not far at all, just waiting for his thumbprint to open for him, for them.

She huffed and dragged his limp body along with her down the street, the Highgarden denizens giving them a wide berth but keeping their eyes down. What could they report if they didn’t see anything, she asked herself. They would keep her secret, she mused, because none of them had ever liked sharing.

She considered just picking him up, maiden style, carrying him like that, but she didn’t think she was strong enough, and she cursed her weak muscles that were not weak at all, but were not strong enough for what she needed.

She made it, she could see his ship, painted blue now, and she was red-faced and sweaty, but none of that mattered because he was still alive, still breathing, and either of those could change at any minute, and she had to get him inside. 

She pulled his hand to the padd, and mercifully, it opened, her heart stopped while his ship was scanning, hoping it didn’t pick up on his full state. But it hadn’t, and she idly thought that she should tell Podrick about that, it was a serious security flaw, but more importantly, it was another hurdle down and she dragged him inside, closing the door behind her.

“What did Tyrion want?”

The voice came from below her, a girl’s voice, a young girl, but she would have to think about later.

“Prepare the pod!” she screamed the words at the girl, who yelped at her tone, but who hopefully would do what she asked. Brienne hoisted Jaime over her shoulder, and she swore she could feel his organs decaying as she held him to her, and it made her careless, she didn’t duck low enough, and he hit his head on the ceiling, and she almost started crying right then and there, but the pod was in front of her, ready to go, ready to save him.

As gently as she could, she lowered him inside, then stripped off the top of his jumpsuit and his torn tank too. The gash on his side looked awful, like a chunk of him had been burned out, and she slammed the pod shut, letting it work it’s magic, hoping it had enough magic left to save him. 

The girl, she remembered, there was a girl with him.

She didn’t see her, which meant there was only one place to look.

Brienne walked over to the cell, where their quarry stayed on rides home. The girl was huddled in a ball on her bed, her head down, holding herself tightly.

“Please, don’t take me back,” she whimpered, her voice so small. “Please, please, I can’t go back.”

Brienne tried to go to her, but too late she remembered the threshold, hunters were never permitted to enter the cells of the quarry. She got a nasty shock to her hand, muttered a curse under her breath, causing the girl to look up at her.

“Brienne?”

_ Sansa _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have you ever played the Game of Thrones card game?
> 
> It's a lot of fun; there are 8 factions, based on groups/families of the game, and they all have their own strengths and approaches to gameplay (for example, the Greyjoys are all about stealth attacks and get bonuses when they have ships in play). I'm not a huge fan of playing with the Tyrell deck, but they play a lot with intrigue, and I've noticed that it's hard to defend against that (not impossible, but tricky). So it seemed fitting that Highgarden in this world would be a beautiful but deeply unwelcoming place for outsiders, with a deep distrust for outside authorities to boot.
> 
> Sounds like Olenna would be right at home here. :)
> 
> Next week will be another two-week update.


	7. Interlude - Jaime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaime's last assignment

He could not figure it out.

This was an easy pickup, a runaway had been found after an eight month search, and Addam had pulled him aside and handed him the assignment like it was made of uranium.

“Be careful,” his commander had told him, a look in his eye he hadn’t seen in a long time, since he’d returned after Aerys.

_Aerys_

He brushed it aside, flexed his synthetic hand involuntarily and shuddered. 

_No good dwelling_

He flexed his hand again, still amazed at how well it responded to him, how good it was at mimicking his old hand.

He felt an old surge of anger, just what he’d been trying to avoid, but there it was, and he took a few breaths, trying to push it away from him.

He had a job to do. 

Brienne was at home, their home, and he sent her a quick message. The planet was practically next door, he’d be home in time for dinner if everything went smooth. 

And it had.

He arrived on the planet, and a dock worker named Jeyne smiled at him as she looked over his credentials and led him to the holding cell. She was there waiting for him already, a young girl, her hands shackled and her eyes downcast, her dark hair clearly a hasty dye job, but it showed she had some smarts.

“Don’t worry miss, I’ll get you home.”

She burst into tears.

He looked at the woman who led him here, who sat next to the girl, draping her arm across the girl’s shoulders.

“It can’t be so bad, miss,” she said as she gently rubbed the girl’s arm. “I’m sure your family misses you terribly. They’ll be so happy to see you, they sent their best hunter to bring you home.”

She looked at him, her wide blue eyes brimming with tears. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

She took a breath, and the tears stopped, but she glared at him as if he had just killed her beloved pet. 

He looked at the padd again, but curiously, her name was missing, a first for him; it wasn’t unprecedented, but it was odd.

Everything about this assignment was odd.

The girl came quietly after that. She would not look at him as he and the dock worker led him to his ship, but he didn’t hear so much as a sniffle from her.

In front of the doors, Jeyne kneeled down to her, wrapped her in a hug the girl couldn’t return. 

“It will be alright,” she whispered, tucking the girl’s hair behind her ears. “You’ll be alright.”

Jaime thought the girl might start crying again, but she held her face still, a mask of ice. She nodded to the woman, but said nothing as she walked away.

Jaime led her inside and downstairs, and pointed her to her cell. 

“When you step in there, there’s a panel on the wall. Just flip the switch, and you’ll be safe.”

“You can’t keep me safe,” she whispered as she passed him. But she did turn on the safety mechanism before turning back to look at him.

_Rhaella_

That’s what she looked like, at the end, a face devoid of light and hope, a face that belonged to a condemned prisoner, not a young girl.

He staggered back, his legs hitting the bed, forcing him to fall back on it. 

He thought she would laugh, he hoped she would laugh at him, but there was nothing. He looked at her again, and she was the same, the same broken eyes looked him over before turning her back to him.

_I tried to save you_

He had. He had killed a man to save her, and he would do it again, even if it hadn’t worked, even if it had cost him a hand, he would still try.

He couldn’t save her, not anymore, but there was still a chance for this girl.

She could still be saved.

“What’s your name?” he asked, his voice soft in case she had fallen asleep.

“It doesn’t matter,” she said, her voice flat and empty, just like her face.

She kept her back to him, curled up on the bed, trying to keep herself as small as possible.

“It’s not listed on the file.”

She shot up at that, glaring at him, some hint of life coming back to her. 

“He didn’t want any record,” she said, practically spitting the words at her. “Now no one …”

She shook her head before turning her eyes down and turning her back on him again. 

He went upstairs, trying to find a reasonable explanation for this entire mission. No name, an easy pickup, too easy, her tears at the idea of going back, none of it made sense. 

He took runaways in before, and they had all been snarling, angry kids, desperate to get home, to be welcomed home but masking all of it with aggression, just like he had done the one time he’d run away.

But this girl...she wept, like one who was being sent to a prison, like she’d been sentenced, not rescued.

His hand hovered over flight controls as he told himself to take the ship back to the Hub, drop her off, be done with this girl and her dead eyes, go home to Brienne, go home…

But instead of sending the ship back, his traitorous hands kept the ship orbiting this planet, because he wanted Brienne and his home more than anything right now, but he needed to help this little girl more than that.

She had had no one. 

But now she had him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a short chapter today, then we're back to Highgarden tomorrow. :D


	8. Highgarden, Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaime is safe in his ship, but for how long?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've upped the chapter count, because I think we'll be doing two chapters a week next week, and the week after that, and then the epilogue. We're closing in on the end, dun dun dun.
> 
> Thank you all for reading!

Brienne had not known Robb's siblings all that well, but she got along with all of them, even Rickon, who loved his oldest brother first than no one else.

But it was still a surprise when Sansa threw herself into Brienne's arms, holding her stomach as tight as she could.

The girl, for all her maturity, she was still a girl, and she was on Jaime’s ship, and Brienne had so many questions for him and for her, but right now, all she could think of was Bran waving to her, almost like he was waving her on a journey to find the missing pieces of his family.

Sansa started shaking as she clung to Brienne, and cautiously, Brienne stroked her hair, rubbing her head like Catelyn had done for her when Jaime had been maimed, before all that misery would come and break her soul.

The pod beeped, and Sansa jumped, stepping out of her embrace to check on Jaime.

She looked over the controls like she knew what she was doing, like they had done this a thousand times before.

“It looks like he was hit in his kidney, but the machine is repairing that, and his skin damage, he should be out in about 4 hours.”

Brienne exhaled the breath she hadn’t known she’d been holding. 

_He’ll be alright, he’s always alright, that’s what he does_

She smiled as a single tear fell down her face. 

Her ship tracker that she kept on her wrist now, just like he did, pinged at her, letting her know that a fellow hunter was at her ship, trying to get in. 

Another beep came across her wrist, and her heart fell.

“Stoneheart target spotted on Highgarden, all agents abandon quarry, locate Agent 31409, aka Jaime Lannister, kill at all costs.”

Sansa’s face paled, and she started shaking as she stared at Brienne. She looked so small as she stepped in front of the pod, trying to protect him.

Brienne kneeled in front of her, clutching her shoulders.

“I will not hurt him, not ever.”

Sansa nodded, stopped shaking, even as she couldn’t stop the tears.

“But I have to get to my ship, there’s a chance I can lead them away from here, let you get away for now.”

Sansa reached up, grabbed her hand with a surprising grip. “No, don’t leave us, please don’t leave us.”

Brienne brushed a tear away from her cheek. “I’m going to tell them that it was a false report, and hopefully they’ll believe me.”

She was a terrible liar, was known for it, but if she prayed hard enough, maybe that could let her get away with this one needed lie.

Sansa flung her arms around her, sobbing into her shoulder, like she’s been holding herself upright for far too long, and now was the time to be free of all of it.

Brienne let her cry; sometimes that all you needed was someone holding you while you cried. 

But Sansa did stop crying eventually, stepping away from her and wiping her eyes.

Brienne stood up, giving her a nod. “When the door closes behind me, don’t open it for me unless I’m alone and tell you the code, you understand?”

Sansa nodded. “What’s the code?”

“Lemon cakes.”

On Brienne’s first visit to Winterfell, Robb has told her if he wanted to impress Sansa, that was the best way to do it, and Brienne had bought her three boxes of the treats. 

Sansa smiled at her, and closed the door behind her, trusting Brienne to get back to them.

Brienne prayed that she could.

***

Her ship loomed ahead of her. She exhaled as she saw her ship was still locked, her colleagues must have given up trying to get in and let her ship be. She only had to walk up a short ramp, open her ship up, grab what she came for, and get back to Sansa

_And Jaime._

It was too much, everything about today had been too much. He was here, in front of her, he had touched her, and he had almost died. 

And he had killed someone. 

She would see the name Trant on the rosters, but he was a newer hunter, his hours were the opposite of hers, and on her off time, she had a home, she and Jaime had a home together, so neither of them spent too much time at the Hub. She was friendly with her colleagues, even friends with a few of them, and now one of them was dead.

Would his family know? Highgarden was notorious for just covering up crimes, or if you forced their hand, to slow investigations down to a miniscule amount, and a dead hunter was unlikely to spur even that much. They would probably jettison his body into space, let him be dead somewhere else.

Maybe when she got back, she could send a note to his loved ones. Maybe she could offer them some peace since she knew what happened.

She walked up the ramp, so focused on her dead colleague that she didn’t hear him behind her until his phaser was at her back.

“Should have known you’d be here.”

That was a voice she knew, Slynt, a man who delighted in roughing up his quarry, a man who somehow never got bounced for the numerous bruises he would leave on his charges.

“Where is he Tarth?”

He stepped back from her, and she turned around, hating the smirk on his face, wishing that she could punch it off his pinched face.

“He’s not here,” she said, praying one last time to let this lie stick. “He was never here, Highgarden was screwing with us again.”

He looked at her, color gone from his face, but he didn’t lower his phaser.

And he laughed.

“You are such a shit liar, Tarth, can’t even do it well to protect the one-handed traitor you’re fucking.”

She clenched her fist, her vision going red. How dare this small, insignificant man talk about Jaime, _Jaime,_ like that?

_If he didn’t have a weapon on me, I would teach him to show respect._

Slynt glared at her, almost like he could see exactly what she thought of him.

He smirked at her. “Tell me where he is, you stupid bint, and I’ll consider letting the other hunters know that you cooperated. Maybe you’ll even get to keep your hands.”

She let out a breath; Addam would protect her as much as he could, she knew that, but he had done the same for Jaime, he had tried to keep him whole, but the council still voted to maim him, what would stop them from doing the same to her?

Slynt’s smile grew wider, so wide it must have blocked his hearing, because she saw Hyle casually walk up behind him, saw Hyle put the phaser to his back and fire without a word.

Brienne looked at him, not even trying to hide the shock on her face, and he grinned at her.

“I’ll tell him Lannister stunned him, that I was too far away to stop him.” 

Hyle turned around, looking around for other agents.

“We were in the area, but as far as I know, we were the closest, but you heard the alert, they’re all coming. You have to go now.”

She nodded, still in a bit of a shock. She had heard the alert, it was a stupid plan, but she couldn’t just leave her ship here, she couldn’t leave it open to the harm that was coming.

“Get what you need, then get going. I can give you ten minutes.”

He nodded at her, and turned away, draping Slynt over his shoulder as he walked away. Hyle had been cruel to her once, she couldn’t forget it, but here he was, giving her a shot at escape.

But there wasn’t time, she had to get what she came for and break her ship on the way out.

***

Brienne adjusted the flight controls, keeping Jaime’s ship in orbit around a small moon, somewhere in the uncharted outskirts of the Highgarden system. She hadn’t looked too closely, just set his ship to fly toward whatever body could shelter them for a few hours.

It had hurt, but she had done it; she had left her ship behind.

She grabbed what she needed from her ship, her partial home for the last five years, then blanked the data, crippling her ship in the process.

It had been a foolish idea to go back, but she needed the padd with the data Tyrion had sent her; she could not risk anyone else getting a hold of it, even if they didn’t know what they were looking at. 

And her dad’s jacket, she couldn’t leave that behind to be burnt in a refuge fire, it was her last piece of him, of home.

And the necklace...it was worth the risk. 

_Jaime hands her a box as she walks in the room for breakfast. She hasn’t showered, her hair is a mess, she’s yawning, and he sweeps her into his arms, kissing her deeply and hands her a small box as he nuzzles her neck._

_She opens it, and her face immediately reddens, because it’s perfect. It’s tiny, but the scene is perfect, a picture of her favorite beach on Storm’s End, where she had taken him while he recovered, made of sand, pressed between glass, where it would be safe for all time._

_“I was near Tarth on a job, so I stopped to get some sand from your ancestral home,” he said with a kiss. “So now wherever you are, you can carry Tarth with you.”_

She had never been to Tarth. She’d wanted to go, wanted to take her dad there before he died, but he went so fast, there just wasn’t time, and the idea made her too sad now. And he’d known that, and given her a piece she could carry with her. 

She blushed as she thought about what happened next, but she clutched the necklace in her palm before gently hanging it from the ceiling, a small piece of her home now in Jaime’s ship.

His pod beeped below her, and she jumped, almost forgetting that this was his ship, almost forgetting that she had found him again.

He was going to make it, he was going to be fine. For now.

She held in her tears because Sansa was still downstairs, she could not fall apart in front of her, she had to be strong for her. Brienne stood up, stretched her arms, reminding herself to be careful, this wasn’t her ship.

_Her ship_

It would be impounded, and the retrievers would find a way inside, they would see what she had done, and with the alert, and Trant and Slynt, they would piece together what happened, and she was on the run now, just like Jaime, and she still didn’t know why any of this was happening, but soon, she would have answers, soon she would know why she had thrown her life away.

_I kept him safe._

She had. And it had only cost everything.

The pod downstairs let out a loud beep, echoing off every wall of the small ship. 

She heard it open, and she headed downstairs, hoping that she would know what to say when she got there.

He smiled at her as he saw her.

And she scowled back.


	9. Interlude - Jaime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaime questions his quarry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Early update!
> 
> The smut swat opens on Thursday, so getting this week's chapters out early. I'm not in this swap, but if you are into reading smut fics, it's going to be a lot of fun. :D
> 
> This one is a shorty, but we'll have a longer chapter out tomorrow.

He waited for her to wake up.

He couldn’t take her back, not yet, not without asking her first what she was running from, not with her sad, empty eyes, the same sad, empty eyes that haunted his dreams, that never granted him the forgiveness he begged for time and again.

So he waited.

He ran ship diagnostics, he ran in place, he jumped in place, until finally he looked at her, and she was looking back at him.

“We’re stopped,” she said softly, her voice barely above a whisper. 

“We’ve stopped,” he said. “We’re in line at a fuel station.”

He was not as comfortable at lying as his family members were, they lied like they were breathing, and he felt that clammy feeling inside as he looked at her, but she needed to talk, he needed to hear what she had to say.

_ “You can’t save her.” _

He jumped as he heard that old bastard’s words in his head. But he was dead, Rhaella was dead, but this girl, she was still alive.

“Why did you run?”

She cringed at his question, pulled herself backward into her cell, curled up into herself. He saw the panicked look in her eyes, and he held up his hand hoping to calm her.

“Who are you running from?”

She shook her head, pointing to the ceiling, and his head swiveled, and he saw the camera pointing at both of them. Another safety measure, the cameras recorded continuously and the hunters didn’t have access to the recordings. 

“It’s only video, they can’t hear you.”

She exhaled, looking at him again, trying to see something in his face, but he could tell she didn’t find it.

“Do you know who I am?”

He shook his head. He had looked over her file again and again, trying to find some clue to her identity, some reason for all the secrecy surrounding one young girl, but there was nothing.

She looked away from him, and he saw a single tear run down her face.

“It doesn’t matter, why I ran or who I ran from, you’re taking me back there, and he’ll get everything he wants.”

His heart started racing, he wanted to run to her, shake the answers out of her, but even without the safety barrier in place, he couldn’t reach her.

_ Rhaella whimpers in her husband's arms, but the fear is gone from her face. She is resigned, she accepts what’s coming, she knows she’s going to die here. She nods at him, the knife pricking her neck. He raises the gun ... _

“What did he do to you?”

She looks back at him, almost alive again, pure fury carved onto her pale face, splashed over her brown eyes.

“He killed my brother.”


	10. Outskirts/Interlude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brienne gets some answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was looking over the next chapter, and I meant to split up these two parts into separate chapters (and separate weeks), but they work better together. 
> 
> And that means the chapter count has gone down, and the story is going wrap up next week. 
> 
> So exciting!!!

He walked toward her, and she stepped back. He had run from her and almost died, he had left her to walk into danger.

She did not trust herself to be near him.

“We’re moving?”

She nodded. “We had to get out.”

“Your ship?”

“She’s scrap now.”

He walked toward her again, and she tried to step back further, but she ran into the wall, gently hitting her head on the metal.

“Where are we going?” Sansa asked, and Brienne turned to her, she had forgotten about her, the little girl who had broken her mother’s heart.

“Do you want to go home to your mother?”

Sansa’s eyes widened, and she started shaking, she held her arms as if she was trying to warm herself.

“No,” she whispered. “I can’t go back there, I can’t go back, I can’t…”

She sat on the bed, almost in a trance, and Brienne wanted to help her, but had no idea how, but Jaime sat beside her, throwing his arm around her, holding her until she stopped shaking.

“We’re not going back, don’t worry,” he said, his voice low and soothing, and she started to breathe normally again as he stroked her arm. She stood up and walked into her cell, turning her back on both of them.

Brienne looked at Jaime, her mind whirling with so many questions, but he held up his hand.

“Upstairs, we should let her sleep.”

She followed him upstairs, and he went to his ship controls.

“Was your ship locked? Or were hunters already inside?”

“I left it locked but … “

She shuddered, remembering the sounds her ship made as she broke her.

“You wiped her?” Brienne nodded, and he reached out to her, but pulled his arm back.

“It was the right call.”

He turned to his comms panel, as Brienne grappled with what she had done. She’d left her ship, she’d become a fugitive, her life was gone, and she didn’t even know what to do.

“Got a pickup for you, priority one, a grey, locked and wiped at Highgarden. Take it to drop site one, I’ll meet you there.”

He smiled at her, that smile that could warm or cut, his smile that she liked to think was just for her.

“We’ll get you your ship back,” he said with a sigh in his voice. “You can go back, blame it on me, I can’t be more of a fugitive now.”

He grimaced at her, and shook his head as he looked down at her hands.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t take you with me,” he said. “It’s too dangerous.”

_ Dangerous? Like running from the hunters, like being shot, like shooting one of your former colleagues, like smuggling a missing girl across the galaxy? _

Her nostrils flared as she stared at him. She’d given up everything, and now he was running again.

"Dammit Jaime, I did not come this far to run away and hide!" Her voice was too loud, too high, and she cringed as she saw the look on his face, his barely contained fury.

"What is going on here?"

Her face was hot, she could feel the tears threatening to spill, but she would not cry in front of him, not now, not ever again. 

He left her, he didn't deserve her tears.

"What are you doing?"

Her voice had gone so soft, like she'd been deflated, defeated by her own feelings. She felt his hand on her shoulder, and it burned, she shrugged it off, not caring about the hurt look on his face.

"What am I doing?" His nostrils glared as he glowered at her.

“I am doing what I’ve always done, what’s right.”

He spat the words at her, as if with one question, she had uncorked something he’d been keeping inside for far too long.

“Stop looking at me as if I’ve betrayed you by helping her, you would have helped her too.”

“Of course I would have helped her, but I wouldn’t have left you to do it.”

Her heart was pounding in her chest, but she felt free, finally, here was the man she could scream at for putting her through so much.

“I was protecting you!”

He walked up to her, pinning her against the wall, and her breath caught in her throat as his hands were her on her hips, his ragged breath in her face.

“I didn’t leave you,” he said softly.

She pushed him back, pushed him away, she couldn’t do this again, not again.

“But you did.”

He looked as if she had slapped him before the hard mask fell over his beautiful face.

“You did,” she whispered as she felt a tear fall down her face.

She heard a cough, and Sansa was there, standing on the steps, her face pale as she looked at both of them.

She couldn’t think of what to say. Catelyn needed her daughters, her son, and they were all far away, and this girl apparently needed to be away from her too, and Jaime was looking at her as if she was at fault for what had happened to them, and everything was far too much.

“I’ll tell her,” Sansa said as she took a breath. “She’s here, she has a right to know.”

Brienne looked at Jaime, and the mask was gone, the mask had only been for her, which hurt more than she cared to admit. 

He nodded at her, and she saw him sigh as the girl went downstairs.

He turned back to the navigation controls, set in a course for wherever he was taking her.

He nodded at her and she watched his eyes darken.

“She can’t go back,” he said. “We can’t let her.”

Without a word to him, she followed the girl who had broken what was left of her mother downstairs.

***

**Jaime**

“Who is he?”

She shook her head, shaking her head again and again. 

“He’ll kill you too. He killed the last person I told, he has people everywhere, you won’t be safe.”

She clutched her knees again, but she did not look away from him, her eyes were steady, her voice was clear.

“He killed my brother so I would be first in line to inherit my family’s money. And he controls my mother, and when I’m sent back to him …”

She swallowed.

“I heard him talking about taking me away, taking me somewhere where he could force me to marry him. And I ran.”

Jaime had not signed up for this. He would not have chosen this mission for himself, but he saw this little girl in front of him, who was trembling, terrified of the future, and he was glad it was him.

He knew Brienne would understand. She would do it too.

“Who are you?” he asked her again.

She stood up, and he saw her eyes change to blue, the disguise finally breaking down.

“Sansa Stark.”

He smiled at her, how could he have missed it? She had her mother’s face.

He stood up, approached the barrier, looked down at the brave girl in front of him.

“Where do you want to go?”

She didn’t believe him, he could tell. Even now she had doubts about him, but he’d show her in time.

She sighed.

“I want to find my siblings.”

He nodded.

Her smile was so sad, she had nothing left but hope.

He hoped she could keep it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just one chapter and the epilogue left!


	11. Outskirts II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brienne has to choose a path forward.

_ Jaime walks away from her, again, again he’s leaving her and her feet are stuck in place, she can feel the glue keeping her in place, keeping her here instead of following him. _

_ She hears the shot, she looks up and he’s on the ground, his chest blasted open, as he gasps. Her feet are still stuck, she still can’t move to him, but she can see him breathing, can see his heart beating, she still has time to save him. _

_ Slynt kneels next to Jaime, a knife in his hand, Brienne is frantic, yanking at her legs, but they are cemented to the floor.  _

_ He smiles at her as he draws the knife across Jaime’s throat, keeps smiling as he presses down, pushing the knife to the ground, yanking Jaime’s head up by his golden hair. _

Her eyes flew open, her breath ragged as she felt the arm across her chest. She clutched his hand, holding on to him as she felt his breath on her neck, hoping it’s enough to convince her nervous system that it was just a dream, that he’s alive.

“Are you alright?” he whispered as he held her tightly. She nodded, she couldn’t speak yet, she couldn’t see anything but Slynt’s smile as he decapitated the man she loved, the man who loved her, the man who left her.

She shuddered as she remembered, remembered the two weeks she stayed at home, not sleeping, barely eating, waiting for him to come back to her, waiting for him to tell her why he had left, waiting, waiting, waiting.

She’d been split open, emptied out and there had been nothing left to replace what she’d lost, and she couldn’t, wouldn’t do that again. She slowly pulled his arm off her, got out of his bed, keeping distance between them. 

_ I can’t go back, not ever again. _

She looked down at him, and in the dim light she couldn’t see his face, but she could see his chest rising, he was alive, Slynt was on Highgarden or somewhere else, he couldn’t kill him, for now he was safe. 

She held her breath, letting it out slowly, exhaling the panic out of her.

“Come back to sleep,” he whispered, holding out his hand to her, inviting her back. She didn’t say anything, couldn’t say anything to him, so she went upstairs, sat at his flight controls, waiting for word on her ship.

As she expected, he came up after her, sitting at the co-pilot’s chair, smiling at her with his rumpled hair.

“Bad dream?”

She nodded, but she didn’t look at him, kept her eyes on the panels below her, waiting and waiting.

She looked at him, and he grimaced, like he was in pain. Sansa had told her everything that she had told Jaime, everything about why she ran, why she kept running, why Jaime had helped her, even about the man who tried to help her, Dontos, and ended up dead for his trouble. 

She’d even said she was sorry for asking Jaime to keep Brienne in the dark, but she needed to know that Brienne wouldn’t do something dangerous.

And she could forgive a young girl that. 

But it was much harder to forgive Jaime when she remembered how she had cried herself to sleep for a month over him.

“I told her I would help her, keep her safe, and I wanted to find you, but she begged me to keep her a secret, and she had no one, so I said yes.”

She scowled at him, she was incapable of hiding her feelings from him, and he blanched, but still kept his eyes on her. 

“You told Tyrion,” she whispered, holding back the old anger, trying to not let it overwhelm her.

“I reached out to him for information, I did not tell him why,” he snapped at her. 

“He could have told me something, could have at least told me you were alive.”

He looked stricken, and finally turned his head away. “I told him not too, but I didn’t think he would listen.”

He stood up, walked over to her, knelt in front of her.

“I’m sorry.”

She sat there, looking at his pleading eyes, and she wanted to reach out to him, run her fingers through his hair, pull him to her and hold him while she cried and purged herself of all the pain and worry and hurt feelings of the last months.

She raised her hand, and like a knife, the panels lit up, the beep of a message cut through their moment.

"Shit," Jaime muttered as he reached past her, turning on a comm channel.

"Lannister, here with your package, factory fresh minus the cameras, as requested; leaving it open for you."

"Thanks, Tyrion will take care of your fee."

Brienne heard a chuckle. "Make sure the little cunt knows that I'm not getting paid in wine this time."

Another chuckle before she heard Jaime's contact click off. 

She looked out the window, and she saw a tiny ship fly away, and it left behind her ship, the ship that would take her away from him.

She nodded, she understood, he was trying to make it easy on her.

She stepped out of his way, and he flew his ship to meet hers, her heart fluttered as she watched the two come together, and she reached for him to steady her as the two connected, their airlocks merging together.

“Where are you going now?” she asked. She didn’t want him to go, her nightmare still haunted her, even if she knew it was only a dream, it was nothing to be afraid of, but it was still everything she feared most.

“We’re going to find her siblings, and find a safe place for them to hide.”

He would not look at her, but she knew what he wasn’t saying. The only way to keep them safe was to hide until Sansa was an adult, and she could take care of her siblings, and not be under the care of the guardian who wished her harm. 

She felt the tears prick at her eyes because she knew too that this was goodbye. He would find her siblings, take them somewhere and he wouldn’t see her for years, however long it took.

And her, what about her? There was a chance she could convince the council that she wasn’t working with Jaime; with Hyle covering for her, and Slynt’s poor record, his doubts wouldn’t matter. And Addam would vouch for her; it just might work. 

“I saw Bran,” she whispered. 

She had not told Sansa, because she couldn’t bear the idea of telling her that, only to have to tell him that she let him go. 

“He’s alive.”

Jaime’s eyes widened as he looked at her. He jumped out of his chair, holding her to him, kissing her so fast she couldn’t react.

“We were right, we were right.” He kept repeating that as he squeezed her to him, his eyes shining with tears. 

He held her face, one warm hand and one cool hand stroking her cheeks, and he kissed her slow and deep, the kiss that made her melt against him, made her reach for him, running her hands through his hair as if nothing had changed.

She gave herself that minute. If this was goodbye, let it be a good one.

She pulled away from him, and he was still smiling.

“The Betha?” he asked, and she nodded.

“We’ll find him, and we’ll find Arya, and I’ll keep them safe.”

She nodded again, and she smiled at him. She took a step forward, grabbing his face and kissing him again, long and deep, a kiss to keep in her memory file.

“I’ll find her,” she said, and she knew what the words meant, but she knew it was right, just as Jaime had known. Even if she never could see Catelyn again, she would keep her children safe.

“I’ll find Arya, and we’ll keep them safe. Together.”

His smile dropped, and he stroked her cheek with his right hand, the cold biting her skin and making her gasp. “Are you sure? You can’t go back from this.”

She nodded through her tears. It hurt to know that she was going to break her Hunter vows, but she knew now what he had always known, that some oaths were not worth keeping. 

“You should wear this,” Sansa said, and Brienne jumped as she saw the girl walking toward her, holding a charm necklace.

“She’ll be wary of you, but she’s stolen that so many times from me, she’ll know it’s mine.”

Sansa launched herself at Brienne, holding her tightly. “Keep her safe,” she whispered before letting her go and heading back downstairs.

Jaime walked her to the airlock door, squeezing her hand as he looked at her and tucked her hair behind her ear.

She held his face, held her tongue, because she had to go now, and there were two many words left to say to him, so many things they needed to say to each other.

But for now, a kiss will have to do.

She leaned into him, and he met her halfway, holding her to him, almost crushing her with the force of his love.

She pulled back, she had to pull back or she would never leave him, and she had to leave, her ship was waiting for her, Arya was waiting for her, even if the girl didn’t know it yet.

“I’ll find her,” she said softly, and he nodded. “We’ll find you.”

And she turned her back on him, walking away from him just as he had walked away from her. She had not considered how hard that must have been as her feet kept moving forward, getting farther and farther from him. She held her palm up to the sensor, and yes, it felt like coming home, it always felt like coming home, but this time it also felt like leaving home too.

She felt the tug of the airlock shrinking, and she looked back, and he was smiling at her, mouthing something she couldn’t make out, but it didn’t matter.

Later, much later, they would have all the time they needed for words.

She waved, and he vanished.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more to go!
> 
> Final chapter will post tomorrow. We're almost there. :)


	12. Tarth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end

**Six months later**

Brienne held her hand out to Arya, not sure if the girl would take it. She would be lying if she said she understood Arya, the girl who was part wolf too, but she surprised Brienne by taking her hand and holding on tight.

It had taken so long to get here, so long to find her, that at many points Brienne was almost ready to throw her hands in the air and declare her gone for good. But she remembered Catelyn’s dead eyes, and Jaime’s hopeful smile, and she kept going, kept tracking The Wind, a ship that did not want to be found.

But, thanks to Tyrion’s help, she had found her, and she had even convinced her surly captain to let her come aboard. Her luck ran out when the captain attacked her in the airlock, demanding to know which one of her uncles had sent Brienne to kill her.

Brienne rubbed the scar on her arm, where Captain Asha Greyjoy had sliced her open with a small but effective knife. It was a brutal fight, but she couldn’t escape Brienne’s reach or her chokehold.

It had taken a lot to convince her she wasn’t trying to kill her, a lot more to convince her to let her meet her crew. 

Arya was calling herself Arry, and while Brienne would never have believed her to be any older than 9, she was acting older, and that helped her pass for older, and Asha was not the kind of captain to ask too many questions.

She had known Arya right away, and Arya had known her, her face freezing as she looked up at her brother’s best friend. She was caught, but she wasn’t a fool, she knew what Brienne was, that she was here for her.

And she tried to run, but as much as she pretended to be older, she was still only 9, and little for her age, and Brienne scooped her up before she could find her way into a space that only she could fit into.

Arya had thrashed and fought against Brienne’s hold, but Sansa had been right, the girl stilled as soon as she saw the charm necklace Brienne was wearing. Arya had held it, brought it to her face, almost like she could smell her sister on the hard metal. 

“Sansa?” she whispered, her eyes wide and fearful for the first time.

Brienne nodded. “She’s waiting for us.”

Arya came with her, but she came with a request, a deep wish to see her mother again, to feel the presence of her again.

Brienne kept walking toward the beach, gripping the girl's hand tighter as they kept a steady pace toward the ocean.

_ Tarth's ocean _

She laughed when she saw the message from Tyrion that here, on a world that she had never been to, here was where she and Arya would meet with Jaime and her siblings, here is where they could be safe.

Her heart fluttered as she got closer to the water's edge. She felt the breeze on her face, and she felt the tears on her cheeks as she looked across the endless sea.

Catelyn had not gotten any better since her last visit, but she had hoped that maybe, just maybe seeing her youngest daughter again, feeling her tiny arms wrap around her body as the girl crawled into her lap, maybe that would be enough to bring her back to herself.

But it wasn't.

Arya had held on for as long as she could, until she knew for sure that her mother was gone. 

She pulled a knife from her pocket, and without a word, sliced a piece of her mother's hair, putting the precious strands gently in her pocket. She did the same with her own hair, leaving behind a piece of herself for Catelyn to cling to in her fog.

Her heart broke at that moment as she remembered being a little girl who couldn’t understand what it meant that her mother wasn’t alive anymore, when Brienne could see her, could still hold her hand.

But her mother’s hand had been icy, no hint left of the warmth that would soothe her after a nightmare, and her eyes were closed, and then she knew, just like Arya knew.

Catelyn was gone, even if she was still breathing.

And maybe someday she could come back, Brienne told herself, not really believing it, but wishing she did with all her heart.

“Could we bring her? Heal her in your pod?”

Arya looked so sad, so hopeful at that moment, but Brienne did the only thing she could. She shook her head and told her the truth.

“My pod can’t fix what’s wrong with her. And we can’t care for her on the ship. But after…”

She let the words trail off, because why not give the girl some hope, why not let her cling to something. And who knows, maybe they could come back for her, help her mother come back to herself.

Arya nodded, but looked away, and her face froze as they heard the alarm.

Brienne had set up a warning beacon, in case anyone else landed nearby, and she watched as the words crossed the tiny screen in her hand.

_ Three Fingers, Captain Baelish _

He was here. The man who tortured Sansa, maimed Jaime, manipulated Robb's assignment to get him posted to the front and paid Robb's fellow soldiers to look the other way if anything happened to him, the man who had brought so much misery to this family, was here.

Brienne saw the hardness in Arya's face, and without another moment, she scooped the girl up and ran.

She wanted to kill Baelish, and she had no doubt she would if he got within sight of her, but Arya was still a girl, still a child, she shouldn't have to see that. She deserved a bit more innocence, Brienne thought.

It was later when Brienne was lying down, trying to sleep that she doubted. She had an image of his face as she slashed his throat, and it was satisfying and righteous, it was a good thing, she knew it, and that’s when Arya laid down next to her, crawling into her lap and crying a year’s worth of tears for everything that she had lost, and she knew she done the right thing after all.

But that girl wasn’t in sight now, as she dipped her bare feet into the ocean, laughing as the cold water hit her toes, shrieking when a small wave snuck up on her, soaking her to the bone.

Brienne smiled, pushing the bad memories away. 

They had made it.

Her smile got wider as she saw a red-haired streak rush by her, tackling Arya before the small girl had a chance to run. Both girls started splashing each other when their brother ran up to them, pulling them both together in a fierce hug as all of them got to be kids again.

Brienne didn’t turn her head, but she felt the shift in the sand as he sat next to her in the sand. He laughed too as he watched the kids playing, the girls ganging up on Bran, or Bran and Arya teaming up to attack their sister, but the Starks couldn’t stop smiling.

Brienne's smile froze as she remembered Arya, her face stony and lost, telling her she'd run because her brother told her too, told her to run to an abandoned underground tunnel, which still had working buggies parked there, and to not stop until she reached Eastwatch Harbor. Arya got into the first ship she could find, like Bran had, like Sansa did when she found the courage to run. 

They had been through so much, but now they were laughing. Now they could be themselves again. 

_ Forever _

“What do you think of Tarth?”

She looked at him them, and he was the same, with his cocky grin and dangerous eyes, but he was still Jaime, still her Jaime. 

“I wish my dad could have seen this.” She wriggled her toes in the soft sound and marveled at the gentle feeling. “He would have loved it.”

Jaime grabbed her hand. “And his daughter?”

She laughed. “She loves it too.”

He reached out to her, making her look at him. 

“We have a house here. With Baelish … “ he saw the panic in her eyes at the name, but he did not say anymore. Once Arya was safe with her, she had contacted Addam and Tyrion, told them everything, and that was enough for them to begin their legal assault, and Baelish had been whisked away to a penal colony for the rest of his life. She still dreamed of his death, but  _ justice _ would have to be enough.

“Addam rescinded the Stoneheart Protocol for me, and Sansa asked that I be their guardian, and her judge agreed, and she asked if we could stay here.”

He took a breath, almost like he was nervous.

“It’s a big house, plenty of room for the kids, and you. If you want to.”

She laughed, a big, full bodied laugh right in his face, before she shifted, tackling him into the sand. His body was coated with the stuff, but she leaned down to kiss him, and he rubbed sand all throughout her hair, and neither of them cared in the slightest.

“I did not chase you this far to let you get away from me now.”

She bit her lip, one last piece needed for their paradise.

“Can we bring Catelyn here?”

He nodded. “She’s on her way now.”

She didn’t stop kissing him for five minutes, not even when the kids started making gagging noises in their direction.

There was so much to talk about, so many questions they would both have to answer, so many decisions that would have to be made, but for right now, with the kids playing in the surf, and Jaime in her arms, this was everything she needed.

_ Forever _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end!
> 
> Thank you so much for following along with this story; I love science fiction, and JB can fit into any genre, but it was especially fun to bring their unique brand of loneliness and romance to a space setting. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed it too. Thank you all for the comments/kudos; they are always a highlight of my day. :)
> 
> If you want more space adventures from me, my other WIP, Valyria, is almost done; last chapter will go up Monday.


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